'“Look at all the guys leaving every year. I’m pretty sure that some guys will put that in their good side, bad side. When (you) want to sign somewhere, you look at everything. Those (things) are very important when you’re a free agent.”'

'"It could have been," he said. "But they did what they had to do and I did what I had to do. For me, I wanted to be here for the long term. I think I made that clear in a lot of ways and it didn't happen. The money was good and stuff, but I can't sign a deal like that. You see what happens in the NHL. A person (Richard Zednik) almost lost his life here a couple of weeks ago. The time table is short and you have to look out for No.1."'

'Two goals and an assist. Several thundering hits and perhaps most impressively, leading the charge in the defense of his teammates during a scrappy, confrontation filled 8-4 win over the Nashville Predators. appropriately enough, Sabres fans are suddenly signing a different tune.'

'“Oh, my God,” Bernier said Thursday. “I don’t think I could explain it. I was in shock. When I was in the plane, I was nervous. It was a big trade and I knew Buffalo lost a very good player. I didn’t know how the fans were going to respond to that. It made me feel so good when I saw that. It took a lot of weight away from me.”'

'“Last night we created a lot of confusion by having a lot of our defenseman involved in the cycles, going to the net,” Ruff continued. “There was probably 10 plays we snuck in [in front of the net] whether it was Toni [Lydman], Talli [Henrik Tallinder], Dmitri [Kalinin], all those guys got involved. You’re going to see some breakdowns, you ‘re going to see the odd breakaway, you’re going to see the odd-numbered stuff, but it’s what we’ve been successful with.”'

'“It wasn’t a give-up trade,” Regier said in an interview Thursday. “And that was important when we looked at it. Because we could have had what amounted to two different first-round picks (from other teams). But those were futures. If we did that we weren’t going to bring a player back into our dressing room."'

‘Bernier’s first game as a Buffalo Sabre was spellbinding. The big right winger scored on his second shift. When he scored again on his fifth, the sellout crowd was ready to anoint him captain. When his on-the-tape pass to Derek Roy resulted in another goal, people were ready to clear space in the rafters next to the names of LaFontaine, Gare and Perreault.’

‘Not to worry. Since then Peters has been the epitome of consistency: one goal last year, one goal this year. He’s more than halfway to the coveted 10-point plateau — for his career. You half expect him to request a meeting with coach Lindy Ruff and ask if he can play on the same line with Bernier. You know, so Bernier can buy him some room and allow him to cultivate his latent skills.’

‘“It’s not the same as the other guys,” said Dumont, referring to recent hostile appearances by Daniel Briere, Chris Drury and Jay McKee. “Sometimes teams make decisions. We don’t know why, but it happens.”’